Friday, October 21, 2011

Two Nominations -- A Study in Contrast

President Obama's nominees to serve on the FDIC Board versus the NCUA Board are a study in contrast.

President Obama nominated Thomas Hoenig to serve as the Vice Chairman of the FDIC Board. Dr. Hoenig was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 1991 to 2011. Dr. Hoenig first joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1973 as an economist in the banking supervision area.

On the other hand, the President nominated Carla M. León-Decker for the NCUA Board. Ms. León-Decker is the President and CEO of the D.C. Federal Credit Union. From 1994 to 2000, she served at the PAHO/WHO Federal Credit Union, initially as Operations Manager and later as President and CEO. Before that, she was a branch manager at the Transportation Federal Credit Union where she served from 1988 to 1994. Ms. León-Decker is a credit union development educator and Co-Founder and Director of the Network of Latino Credit Unions & Professionals.

Tom Hoenig has a strong background as a bank regulator, while Carla León-Decker has no regulatory experience.

Not only that, they have $1,500,000 in secondary capital. Without his they would be in deep doo doo. Perhaps members of the senate (republicans), who have to sign off on confirmations, should be aware of this.

And while on the subject of Leon-Decker’s nomination, one can also raise the question concerning the White House’s continued dodge of statutory requirements for nominees. In 1998 Congress expressly limited the appointment of credit union officials to the NCUA Board. Section 205 of the Credit Union Membership Access Act that amended Section 102 of the Federal Credit Union Act (12 U.S.C. Sec. 1752a (b)(2)(B)) stated, “Not more than one member of the Board may be appointed to the Board from among individuals who, at the time of the appointment, are, or have recently been, involved with any insured credit union as a committee member, director, officer, employee, or other institution-affiliated party.” At the time of NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz’s appointment (who was at the time a very recent credit union executive), Gigi Hyland was already a seated “credit union” appointee. Now Chairman Matz is the seated “credit union” appointee. Leon-Decker is at least in theory the disallowed second “credit union” appointee. Watch closely as this factoid gets ignored yet again.

As usual how can someone be appointed without any regulator experience and be another person with credit union experience on the Board, it's easy its election time. The White House does not care about following the law.

Hoenig may be a fine academic but his experience does not show any real world experience. Only accepting government paychecks. Never having to review a loan application. Never having to live with the way too numerous to count regulations imposed upon financial institutions and will be in position to levy more upon banks (who need assistance in this area as much as credit unions). Too much a part of the "ruling class" that afflicts too many of elected officials at the local, state and federal level.

About Me

Dr. Keith Leggett is retired from the American Bankers Association, where he was a Senior Vice President & Senior Economist. He is a leading expert on credit unions and the National Credit Union Administration.

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